Pressure Cooker Explosion, Injuries & Lawsuits [Exploded]

While talking about the cooking appliance, a pressure cooker is one of the most common cookware in your kitchen. While you are running out of time, and you need to cook recipes within a limited time, a pressure cooker can be your best friend. From cooking rice items to meat and vegetables, you can prepare dozens of recipes in a pressure cooker.

This appliance can save your time and money and you get tasty food within a limited time. But, often pressure cooker can create several problems and to the worst, it can explode and cause several accidents. Today, you will get to know more about the pressure cooker and the safety tips of using it.

What Is Pressure Cooker?

A pressure cooker is a device where you cook on the simple principle and that is steam pressure. The sealed pot creates steam inside and that helps to build high pressure. Thus, cooking in pressure cooker becomes easy and quick. While cooking in a pressure cooker, you can do the water test to know your device better. After five minutes, the appliance will start releasing pressure and cook slowly.

Now, you know that your pressure cooker is ready to cook anything in it. You should also use different buttons for a particular cooking setting. There will be a button for fish that you can use to cook the same. Usually, all types of pressure cooker cook in the same way; but often they come with different setting option.

There are certain appliances where you need to put less time while cooking white rice, but brown rice may take longer. You may also need to preset the button before cooking. Always follow the user manual. You can also check the videos on how to use a pressure cooker on the internet to know the right usage of the appliance and avoid any kind of accidents, especially when you are using a pressure cooker for the first time.

What Can Go Wrong with Pressure Cooker?

The pressure cooker is such cookware that makes cooking really easy. When you want to save your gas and also your money, cooking in pressure cooker is the best way. But, you must have heard about pressure cooker explosion. If you aren’t attentive enough about using the appliance, it can cause a serious problem. There are lots of incidents where the pressure cooker exploded and caused severe damage to property and health. You can file a lawsuit on faulty pressure cooker but, once you know about such mishaps, you can take early precautions. Let’s have a look at these types of accidents.

Accidents and Injuries Caused

In 2019, January, a nine-year-old boy, and his grandmother got burnt in pressure cooker explosion in Wynnewood, Oklahoma.

If you go back a year ago, there was another accident of pressure cooker blast in October 2018 where a 2-year-old toddler got seriously burnt while he was clinging to his mother’s leg while she was making pot roast for dinner. This accident happened in Burley, Idaho.

There was another accident from the pressure cooker that took place in the same year where a 65-year-old lady got burnt severely as the lid of the pressure cooker blew off and she got injured. She had injuries on her shoulders and also got blisters on her face and also had eye damage.

April 2018 also saw a similar kind of accident where a makeup artist suffered from a second-degree burn due to pressure cooker accident. These are just a few incidents mentioned here, there have been instances where lawsuits have been filed against the brand for introducing faulty products as well. But, that doesn’t undo the injuries or bring back a life.

Type of Injuries that can be caused:

What kind of injuries one can face due to the explosion of a pressure cooker? Here, you will get to know about those also-

• Burn Injuries– This is one of the most common types of injury where you can face second-degree burn. Due to burn injuries, the entire body of a person can get damaged. To the worst, this can lead to more serious damage, like amputation or infection. There are three types of burn injuries one can have from pressure cooker-
  1.  First-degree burn where the outer layer of the skin gets damaged.
  2. In the second-degree burning, the first inner layer of your skin along with the outer layer can be damaged.
  3. Third-degree burns are the most serious ones where the injury damages the inner layers of your skin and tissues.
• Spills & Explanations– If your pressure cooker has a leaky seal, you can get injuries from spills. Again, if you fill the pot too much, you can be injured from explosions. Opening the lid faster can also cause accidents as hot food may spill out.
• Electrocutions– Apart from common burning injuries, people can also get electrocution burns from the pressure cooker. If you have an electrical device and it comes in contact with water, steam, etc. there can be a short circuit. This can cause serious injury to the cook.

Tips to Stay Safe from Pressure Cooker Accidents

Cooking in pressure cooker is really beneficial, but due to these accidents, many people often hesitate to use a pressure cooker. Once you follow certain tips to stay safe, you can easily use the pressure cooker and cook faster. Let’s find out how to keep you safe from any damage caused by your pressure cooker-

1. Always Check the Appliance Well

Before using the pressure cooker, check the gasket or the sealing ring to make sure that there is no crack in it. You should change the gasket every year and in between, keep an eye on it. Keep it clean and make sure there is no food is left and dried off on the ring.

2. There Must be Enough Liquid

It is very important to check whether your pressure cooker is capable of building enough pressure inside it. Take a ½ cup of water and make sure that the cooker can build enough pressure for perfect cooking. If you see that the required pressure isn’t building, add a little more water to get the right pressure. Once you get it, your pressure cooker is ready to cook.

3. Never Fill the Cooker Completely

You should not fill the cooker with more food elements as that can clog the safety valve and cause accidents. There are certain food elements, like oats, rice, grains, etc. which swell up after being cooked; so, never reach the maximum level while cooking these things in a pressure cooker.

4. Know How to Release Pressure in Safe Way

There are three ways to release pressure-

• Turn off the heat and let the cooker sit until it releases the entire pressure. This is known as natural release.
• You can also run cold water on the closed lid to make cool and you can open it. This process is known as cold water release and if you are in a hurry, you can do it.
• You can just hold the steam valve and let the cooker release the entire steam in the system of quick release.

If you are choosing the quick release method, you have to be careful enough and keep your face, arms, and other body parts away from the steam vent.

Hopefully, you get enough information here about cooking in a pressure cooker and the safety tips to avoid any kind of accidents that can occur from the pressure cooker. There are incidents which reveal how deadly the accidents can be.

So, you should always check the appliance before using and make sure there is no clogging to the safety valve. Always keep the appliance clean for better use. While buying a pressure cooker, you should go for the branded ones and always check the user manual. Though the usage of this appliance is almost the same, some of these come with a variety of features that will help you to cook in a different way.